I absolutely love this series. Beginning with Every Heart a Doorway, continuing with Down Among the Sticks and Bones and now Beneath the Sugar Sky, the Wayward Children series is quickly becoming one of my all-time favorite fantasy series. McGuire is getting it so right with these books and this one is no exception. From the tone to the characters to the pacing, these books just flow perfectly are so so readable. I was very excited by the premise because portal fantasy is a favorite of mine so getting to watch as one of my favorite authors plays around with the tropes and rules of the genre is really fun. It is clearly a favorite of the authors as well which only makes the series more fun and enjoyable.
In this installment we learn more about Nonsense worlds and the rules that govern them. Our band of intrepid heroes from Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children has set out to save one of their own, Sumi and by extension her daughter, Rini. To do so they have to travel to the world of The Baker. This world is really fun and interesting and the group has to do some interesting things to make the worlds rules work for them instead of against them. I loved this group of characters together. They are all very different but also very relateable and getting so see them find their place and use their strengths is very satisfying.
Overall this book is great and I am again anxiously awaiting the next one. I will read as many of these as Seanan McGuire wants to write. If you have enjoyed the others in the series I don't think this one will disappoint.

I have a complicated relationship with these books. Like, I'm gonna read them all because I'm completely entranced by the idea of a bunch of people who get taken from our world and then are lost when they are returned to it again, but I didn't love this one as much as I'd hoped.

It pretty much takes up immediately where Every Heart a Doorway left off. Jack and Jill are gone. Sumi is dead.

And then a girl from a candy and nonsense world comes falling from the sky. This takes a lot of the characters who are currently in the house on a journey through one of the death worlds, into Confection and back again.

I loved seeing Kade again. He continues to be fantastic. I'm very much looking forward to him taking over the school after Eleanor is no longer with us. But every other character in this novel? I could have taken or left. And so, despite the story being a good one, I just found myself not particularly engaged.

McGuire is a startlingly empathetic writer. She writes young characters that in lesser hands would come off as cloying as they are whimsically charming and sincere. While having this book only be tangentially connected to the first two books in the series didn’t completely land for me, still enjoyed it!

The third book in McGuire's Wayward Children series takes students from Eleanor West's school on a quest. The students are shocked when a girl appears and announces that she is the daughter of Sumi, another student who was killed before her daughter Rini was born. Rini, who comes from a nonsense world created by a baker out of confectionary, is disappearing and needs the students to help her get her mother back before the evil Queen of Cakes takes complete control of the world.

The first two books in the series were fairly grim, so this adventure was a nice change of pace. Beautifully written with poignant characters.

Seanan McGuire's Wayward Children series is one of my favorite worlds to read about - every installment is a delight and so full of whimsy and wonder. Beneath the Sugar Sky is no exception. This novella is a direct sequel to Every Heart a Doorway and I was as happy with that as I was with the prequel setup of the second installation, Down Among the Sticks and Bones. Basically any installation in this series is going to be one I'll love because I'm so interested in all of the characters and their backstories and their futures - and Beneath the Sugar Sky introduces us to new characters who I now love too. These novellas are so short, but they pack so much into each one. It's difficult to talk about this installment because it deals specifically with major spoilers for the first one, but needless to say I loved it. It was enchanting and happy-making from beginning to end.

I like the concept of this series so much. This was a quick read but not my favorite in the series. I wasn't a huge fan of the world we got to explore in this book or the overall plot involving Sumi. This may just be because we never really had a chance to really get to know her in the first book. I would have much rather explored some of the other worlds like Christopher, Nadya, Cora or Kades. However, I enjoyed visiting Nancy and seeing her in her world. I am interested in discovering more about each of the worlds in future books. .

I recieved an ARC of this novel via Netaglley in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoy most of the books by this particular author and I definitely liked the first two books in this series. Unfortunately, this is a much weaker entry. It lacks a lot of the heart of the first two books and definitely the character development, world-building, and sense of wonder. It felt as sugary and unsubstantial as the two dimensional, lackluster descriptions of the sugar world that the majority of the book takes place in and I believe the ending gave me a cavity in its unlikely sweetness and light. That said she is still a highly talented writer and this lesser effort was still worth reading if you are a fan of the series...if only to follow up on some of the characters from the previous two stories.

Beneath the Sugar Sky is the third book in Seanan McGuire’s wonderfully imaginative and gritty series about children who travel through doors to worlds of Nonsense, Logic, Death, etc. On the other side of the doors, the children and teenagers usually find harrowing adventures and a place where they truly feel at home. In this entry, children from Eleanor West’s School for Wayward Children go on a quest with a girl who fell out of the sky and into their turtle pond.

The books in the Wayward Children series are all blisteringly fast. After Rini—a girl with candy corn colored eyes—falls out of the sky and asks for help finding her mother, the students at the school immediately volunteer to help her. The fact that her mother was murdered before Rini was born is a complication, they admit. But since Rini and her mother belong to a world of Nonsense, cause and effect are fuzzy enough that their half-baked (‘scuze the pun) plan is crazy enough to work.

I don’t want to reveal too much of the plot because a lot of the joy of these books is going on an adventure with the teens to bizarre words that seem more real than the earth they left behind. What I enjoy about this series is that all of the students were the heroes of their stories before they had to come back. They don’t shy away from things that seem difficult. They do what needs doing. But what I love about the series is that the characters have found places where their flaws are virtues, places that are the perfect home and no one gives them a hard time for being flighty or overweight or morbid. I’ve purchased the first two books in the series for my library and, as soon as they come in, they’re going to be my go-to recommendations for a lot of readers.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley for review consideration. It will be released 9 January 2018.

The third installment in what might be my favorite series ever. This writing book, as well as in the previous ones, paints the most vivid pictures of the most fascinating worlds you never knew you needed to read about. While I didn't feel quite as drawn in by the characters in this book to compared to the first two, nothing can compare to Seanan McGuire's world-building.

I loved the first two books in this series by Seanan McGuire, however, I found the premise of the story a little too fantastical. I couldn't wrap my head around getting Sumi's bones, then her "soul" and then her 'nonsense" to make her whole again. I did, however, enjoy the descriptions of the nonsense worlds and the explanation of logical etc.

This series is for every adult who felt like they lived in Wonderland, Oz or Narnia growing up. Venturing into each world is like returning home yourself. Seanen makes you want to search for doors in all the unlikely places so that you too can find somewhere you really belong.

One more quest for the students of Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children. A small band of McGuire’s returned children—teens facing the after effects of trips through doorways to magical lands while desperately wishing for their doors to reappear—are enlisted to return the destined savior of the land of Confection to her rightful timeline. Rini falls out of the sky onto the school grounds looking for her mother, only to find that Sumi died well before Rini’s conception. But Confection is a Nonsense world and there is still a chance of bringing Sumi back and putting the timeline to rights. Kade and Christopher are joined by two newer students and Rini in their quest to bring Sumi back to life. It’s absurd and fabulous!

Sigh...What a wonderful story......
I absolutely love this series, and this one is just as good as the first. We meet a few new "wayward children", and get to see more of old favorites.
In this story, they must visit a "Nonsense" world, Confection, to save Rini, Sumi's daughter. If you've read the first, you know that Sumi doesn't have a daughter, and she has been murdered.
But Sumi was supposed to return to her world, save it, and have a daughter. Now Rini is in danger of disappearing unless they can find a way to bring Sumi back to fulfill her destiny.
Told with McGuire's trademark writing, this story is sure to delight her fans.

This book picked it up a notch or two.

I didn't hate any of the MCs, I LOVED Cora and getting to see Christopher again. I want their stories next please!

The writing is, again, stellar and the universe this is set in felt like slipping into a comfy pair of shoes after spending all day in heels. It felt like, home.

Absolute delight. You will probably want/need to read the other two books before this one in order to know the back story re: Sumi, but the first two books are, unfortunately, quick reads, so getting to this book won't take too long.

And it's WORTH it. It's left me SALIVATING for more. Again, I repeat, more Cora and Christopher please!

I also liked that the characters weren't the stereotypical "white savior" and that Cora was a bigger girl. She had hang ups about it, but we got to see how being "fat" was important in the world whose door she went through and how she was starting to value herself, "fat" and all.

5 stars, all the way. Highly recommended, YA and up. Some violence and gender orientation discussion. Not offensive, but educational to those who know little about the topic.

My thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge to an eARC copy of this book to read and reivew.

Seanan McGuire has become one of my favorite authors, and this series is why. I've recommended "Every Heart a Doorway" to so many people, I've lost count. Some sequels suffer, and by the time we hit the third book, the series starts to lag.

This is not the case for Wayward Children. While the first book will always be the best book, we get to visit other worlds in Beneath the Sugar Sky. We get to learn more about how the worlds work and interact with each other.

It's a fun journey...perhaps tied up a little too neatly, but it's entertaining and fastpaced. I'm looking forward to the next book!

I enjoy this series by Seanan McGuire and how each narrative is shaped by the worlds/personalities of the main character(s) that the works focus on. This particular book is nice in how it is addresses an injustice which occurred in the first book and also loops us back with some characters from the past. I also enjoyed how this one wasn't quite as gruesome as the last Jack & Jill book which I didn't really like as much.

This novella is another revisiting of the world established in "Every Heart a Doorway", with yet another character arc completed. In this case, Sumi, who was killed in EHAD, has her story resolved by her daughter Rini, who has come to find Sumi because Rini is slowly starting to disappear. Apparently time works chaotically in the candy-coated land of Confection, where Sumi was a heroine. Although in this timeline Sumi died as a teenager, Rini was still somehow born and is now retroactively being erased.

The best part of this story is the description of Confection. There's strawberry soda sea washing up on a brown sugar and cake crumb beach. There are forearm-long candy corns growing on stalks in a candy corn field. Crazy baroque gingerbread palaces. Knights wearing tinfoil armor like candy wrappers. All lots of fun.

What I didn't like as much: this story is told almost entirely through the eyes of a new character, Cora. Cora's found world was a water world, and she was a mermaid. Her hair is still bright blue and green from her time there. Cora also weighs too much to be conventionally beautiful, although she is an endurance swimmer and athlete. These qualities were an asset to her in the waterworld, keeping her warm and allowing her to perform heroic deeds.

Seanan McGuire is not afraid to proselytize in her books, and her cause this time is that obese people are competent, not large because they are lazy but because of genetics,often underestimated and stereotyped, and as beautiful as all people are. That's not a problem for me, but the book hammers this home every chance it gets. At least in the copy I read, I also felt there was a little inconsistency in the first description of Cora, with soft gentle drooping limbs and belly, and her athleticism. You can be a big girl and still have muscle and an endurance swimmer should surely have some muscle definition. So it felt a bit like the author wanted to have her cake and eat it too (ha) with a description of someone stereotypically overweight without muscle tone but who also is proficient at a very difficult sport. Of course, I could just be displaying my own ignorance here, in which case I do apologize. And I also apologize for any offensive wording- in writing this review I realize just how loaded so many words used to describe plus-size people are. Overweight? Implicitly judgmental. Fat? Absolutely horrible. But there aren't many words I can come up with to describe Cora's weight, which must be discussed because it is the theme of the book, that aren't associated with negativity. If there's a good term to use, I'm happy if someone can educate me.

Anyway, the real problem I had with Cora is that she wasn't in the first book, and I didn't want her story, I wanted Sumi's story. Unfortunately, Sumi is out of action for the whole book, and Rini, with her alien viewpoint coming from a chaotic world, isn't used often as a viewpoint character.

The moral of the story had nothing to do with Sumi, and even Cade is more of a utility character than one we learn more about. We do see Nancy again in her own element, and I did enjoy that. But I don't need new characters added in in this world when there are already so many interesting ones to learn more about. I also wish I could have seen more of Sumi, who I really liked in the original novella.

Seanan Mcguire outdoes herself again. This third installment in the Wayward Children series strikes all the right notes, and includes some characters that I didn't think we'd see again. It also introduces a new resident at the home, who I can't wait to read more about.

The continuation of McGuire's "Every Heart a Doorway" series is as richly imagined and compelling as the initial installment. Departing from the more Logical worlds presented previously, "Beneath the Sugar Sky" explores, life, death, candy, and identity. As always, McGuire's characters are lovable, anxious, and diverse. Highly recommended.

What a delight! I loved Every Heart a Doorway, but skipped Down Among the Sticks and Bones because I'm not such a fan of creepy, and it seemed like it would certainly head in that direction. I am so glad that I was able to pick up Beneath the Sugar Sky as an eARC. It was fast paced and very clever, will all the odd little details and turns that McGuire is known for in her writing. It can stand alone, but I think readers will find it more valuable to start with Every Heart a Doorway, so that you can get the full picture of the fascinating worlds McGuire crafted in her writing.

I was also so pleased to see Cora presented as a fat character who is just fat and dealing with how the world is reacts to her size. It was so deftly handled and I hope to see more of her in the future.

Tagged this as queer themes & trans as one of the characters is trans and there are queer characters visible in the world, but it's not a particular major thing in this novel.